Cornish Wrestling - Tradition and Sports

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Hi Nightwalker, my granddad Tom Luxon and his father Charlie used to wrestle for Cornwall in Brittany I think it was every two years or so. I'm not sure of the details but do they still do the run over to Brittany?
 
There is normal Hurling over here. Guys with big sticks (Hurls) smashing the bejezus out of each other. Mental sport altogether. Then we have the more traditional sports of "Drinking until falling down", "Tall tale telling", "Fryed food eating", "Racing souped up small cars from car park to car park" (open to males only, aged 17 to 25)
 
Ok, so it was the Interceltic Tournament today at Wadebridge (Cornwall) the Bretons came over to challenge our champions. I was under the weather with illness, sore throat, lack of energy and all that rubbish :( I still took on their champion and won! Its a great year so far, im the new Heavyweight Champion of Cornwall and the Interceltic Champion! :D

Its the best feeling to see my father proud, he's recently retired but I still consider him the best wrassler alive, as well as holding the best living knowledge of our sport and its history. ANDYRAF I will run those names past my dad see what he comes up with.

So... I've been wrestling all my life and never had a single visit to A&E, yet my new friend Rhoda on the other hand ends up there practising new yoga techniques! - I'll be buggered if im trying and of that life-endangering yoga in the woods! :p
 
Well done!
What different categories/weight divisions are there? I take it heavyweight is open weight.
I used to do kickboxing and kung fu as a teenager in tournaments, the trouble is there was always the one freaky guy who dominated at open weight - 6'6" , 18 stone and could do backflips and one handed handstands etc. Kind of put me off:)
I've thought about trying wrestling before - I also did about 5 years of Judo but everything here is Olympic, no local styles I've been able to find.
 
So... I've been wrestling all my life and never had a single visit to A&E, yet my new friend Rhoda on the other hand ends up there practising new yoga techniques! - I'll be buggered if im trying and of that life-endangering yoga in the woods! :p

Cheeky! You're not getting out of it that easily :lmao:
Congratulations mate, good stuff!
 
Thanks all, here's a few of the crew, im the middle holding the main trophy of the day:

Interceltic.JPG

trophy.JPG


Cheeky! You're not getting out of it that easily :lmao:
It was worth a try!... ok, ok, I'll try near enough anything, unless it involves me wearing a spandex :sulkoff:

...I wonder why they don't do that in Ireland? Or perhaps they do and I don't know about it.
If they do I haven't heard about it, then again I haven't looked or researched, but I bet they will have had their own style at one point! Again my father will know more I'll ask him, but im sure all the Celtic regions had their own wrestling styles at one time or another, its just like Devonshire style... its died out over time. If you think about it; generically speaking wrestling is the oldest sport known to man. Whether it had been a genuine fight between two caveman over a leg of meat, or a couple of playful youngsters wrestling like fox-cubs in spring, the act was always there and then of course it gets picked up as recreational play and then recorded in some of the earliest human records, men grappling and having a hitch as we would say.

One piece of history I like about Celtic wrestling is this; reportedly back when Henry VIII and other kings ruled they would have Interceltic Wrestling Tournaments as entertainment for royalty from all over, of course back then they had a lot more styles to choose from and involved, it then became more of a Interceltic battle, the best of 'british' facing the french to do their best and defeat. The interesting thing is that the kings would choose a team of their best wrestlers to go over to Britanny, these could be any team of wrestlers choosen from numerous styles from all over the country, however again and again this team consisted entirely of Cornish men, who were renowned as the best and masters of wrestling. This sort of thing is echoed through our history with such things like at the Battle of Agincourt it was recorded that the Cornish Contingent of men stood beneath a banner of two wrestlers in a hitch, no words were needed for the whole Europe knew who stood there that day, the Cornish men were known far and wide for being the best wrestlers. :cool:
 
Nightwalker,

congratulations and well done on becoming the Interceltic Champion.
I bet your dad is well chuffed to be seeing his lad do so well in a real sport.

Injuries in the hill race are quite rare - I don't recall anything serious over the last 30 yrs or so. The main/expected injuries are scuffs, scrapes and twists. The runners pick their line and go for it - this can involve a sheer drop of upto 10 feet or so, a quick route through a gorse bush or a slide down the scree so this is where the injuries come from.

Cheers

JFW
 

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